Officials urge hike in funds for county’s public safety

Friday

Lane County public safety officials said Thursday that the system needs more money a day after the county board indicated it hopes only to hold the line on public safety funding next year.

District Attorney Alex Gardner and Sheriff Russ Burger said the county public safety system is falling apart, and they’ll ask the board to direct more money next year to the Lane County Jail and other public safety and social services.

But both said they’re also well aware of the county’s stark revenue shortage, and they acknowledged the possibility that their pleas will go unanswered.

“We talk to the commissioners all the time, and ultimately the decision over whether to mitigate the public safety crisis is theirs,” Gardner said. “Obviously, the judges and the district attorney and the sheriff are going to continue to say, ‘Not only is (the public safety system) broken, but it’s getting worse.’?”

County government has long relied on payments from the federal government as compensation for lower timber sales on federal land.

With renewal of the payments uncertain during the first half of last year, the county board cut almost 8 percent of its work force in June. That included staffing for more than 200 jail and Forest Work Camp beds, and today the jail budget allows use of only about 125 of the jail’s nearly 700 beds for Circuit Court defendants and convicted offenders.

Federal lawmakers renewed the payments in a multiyear package late last year, but slashed them by 40 percent from historic amounts, county budget manager David Garnick said. For example, the first payment for this year’s general fund $13.5 million was down from the typical amount of $18 million to $20 million, he said.

The county board’s quandary is how to split the reduced payments between maintenance of existing services and restoration of services that have been cut over recent years. Another option still on the table is using some of the payments to buy down long-term debt.

The board indicated this week that it might spend a fraction of the payments immediately on relief for victims of the nationwide recession and other services. But most of the payments could be earmarked for maintenance of general fund services over the coming years, Chairman Pete Sorenson said this week.

The board and county Budget Committee will meet on those questions in coming weeks, with a deadline of July 1 to adopt a budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Reserving the payments would allow the county to maintain all services at their current levels next year without cuts, Sorenson said.

But Gardner said status quo isn’t good enough for a crippled public safety system that ejects thousands of offenders early each year from a jail that lacks capacity. Those offenders include convicted criminals who haven’t served full sentences and defendants awaiting trial on serious crimes and who under state law should be held in jail until trial.

Gardner favors more money for public safety immediately, rather than preserving the current system for a longer period. “Ultimately the choice comes down to whether we’re going to have (slightly better) essential services for a shorter period of time, or terrible public services for a slightly longer period of time,” Gardner said.

Burger said he’ll lobby for increased jail funding in the current and coming year. But he added, “I’m not going to hold my breath.”

Sorenson has suggested that increased federal and state funding might be part of the solution. But the state faces a $1 billion-plus shortfall for the next two years, which could leave Salem lawmakers reluctant to set aside more money for the county.

The large populations in Eugene and Springfield make the two cities the biggest users of the county public safety system, and Burger said the three governments must work together to improve funding.

Eugene faces a possible revenue shortfall next year, and Mayor Kitty Piercy wouldn’t say whether more city funding can be found for the county system. But she condemned the situation and said ultimately the three governments and their citizens must pay for a better system if they want one.

“It’s unacceptable for us to have a revolving door at our jail and for us not to be able to prosecute and put criminals through our judicial system,” Piercy said. “The county and the cities have to step up.”

Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken, however, said the federal government must shoulder the financial burden for county public safety.

Springfield faces cuts of its own over the next two years, and the smaller multiyear timber-­payments package recently approved is “a joke,” Leiken said.

“The bottom line is, is there a way (that Oregon’s congressional delegation) can talk to the Obama administration about (getting) a strong renewal of the timber program back in place?” Leiken said.

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